Michelle Hansen Tags Home With Message to Chase Bank: You're 'Stealing' My House

Cases of homeowners struggling against their banks to fend off foreclosure are a dime a dozen these days. But Michelle Hansen of Aurora, Colo., is upping the ante against JPMorgan Chase, which she says is refusing to grant her a loan modification after she became delinquent on her mortgage. What's her tactic? She's using her own house to publicly shame the bank, scrawling a message across her garage door that says: "JPMorgan Chase is stealing this home."

"They think everyone's just going to go away," Hansen (pictured below) told KMGH-TV in Denver of her bank. "I think they picked the wrong house." Hansen is doing anything but going away -- she's fighting back. The entirety of the message addressed to JPMorgan and its CEO, Jamie Dimon, that Hansen spray painted on her home reads: "Jamie Dimon & JPMorgan Chase, JPMorgan Chase is stealing this home. Ignores homeowner for 21 months!! I will not violate federal law on your behalf as a condition of communication from you! Call me. Chase Me!!" Hansen ends the note with a heart sign.

According to Hansen, she notified JPMorgan in May 2011 that she had fallen on hard times and would not be able to pay her mortgage payments. She said the bank promised to work with her on getting a loan modification, then refused to do so two months later. "You're told, 'We need A, B and C,' so you give them A, B and C, and then, 'No, we need this and then we'll talk to you,'" Hansen said. "So you did it, and they keep lying."

JPMorgan Chase said in a statement, "Chase does not own this mortgage but services it on behalf of its investor, Fannie Mae, and must follow all investor guidelines." It's easy for distressed homeowners in these types of situations to view the banks as the bad guys, but to be fair, Chase recently began refinancing thousands of loans. Last year, as part of the $25 billion mortgage settlement, Chase offered $4.2 billion toward mortgage relief to slash the interest rates and principal loan balances of thousands of underwater borrowers

4. You're not in any position to make that accusation.

Look... there are few people on DU that are more "pro bank" than I am (well... few that make it past their first week) - and I'll agree that many people suffering over the past few years made the bed that they're stuck with now. But we don't know that she's one of them.

She might have been very conservative in her financial decisions... but illness changed her income prospects and drained her savings. Or perhaps she was married and they purchased the home on joint income expectations and now he left her to fend for herself and some children. Or maybe she had more than enough income and capital to afford the home but lost her job four years ago and simply hasn't been able to replace it.

8. Not every "investment" works out for every one.

Don't put money in any investment where you can't afford to lose it, and that includes home ownership. She'll be a bit wiser the next time, but scrawling this across her garage door doesn't help her neighbors one little bit.

7. I've made a lot of bad financial decisions in my life

and have had to pay the price for them. It's why I made the decision about five or six years ago to make damned good and sure I don't spend every freaking penny that I get in my paycheck. Thus, I'm not only a paycheck or two away from disaster.

I used to work in the real estate industry, in title insurance. The people that were just simply a commission check to the shysters who sold them flip-this-house dreams and "easy payment" mortgages treated them like sheep to be sheared, and I watched that happen to so very many of them.

No boom lasts forever, and that was especially true of the housing boom. I'm sorry that this borrower feels the need to depreciate the value of her neighbors' houses with the rant painted on the garage door.